The War had broken and I was registered as an Agricultural Worker. I had to join the War Agricultural Committee. Although my first ploughing was above the Nant y Garth pass as you enter from the top, I was privileged to clear the bracken and gorse on the right as you look towards the Vale of Clwyd. Before long I was told that I was to go to Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog to plough in a place called Cyrchynan Ucha, the Morris family are still there. The foreman picked me up in Ruthin and via the Horseshoe Pass we came to Llangollen. I said to myself “What a view!”. As petrol was rationed it was through Llangollen twice a week, Monday and Saturday.

Before long, I was promoted to be a Lorry Driver and to help Land Girls and drive Italian prisoners of war from Pool Park, Ruthin to various places in Sir Ddinbych. Then one day I was told that I was to take a tractor and plough with six Land Girls at Worlds End. We were to plough and cultivate and plant six acres of potatoes. By then I was courting one of them, Mildred, who was born in Llysfasi, the first girl I was told. By the time the potatoes were to be picked up there was a search light unit near the end of Worlds End. There we came again to pick the spuds. We nearly finished on the Friday but the Land Girls said they were tired. We had to come back to finish on Saturday morning. By eleven o’clock the job was complete, we loaded the tractor and machinery and I was told to take them all to the Britannia to have a coffee, which turned out to be a few beers before going back to Rhuthun. That’s when I met Mr and Mrs Williams who were the owners there. There was no passing the Brit after that, where the ‘Croeso’ was unique. This was the ‘Brit’ start!

I was called up to the Army in 1945 and was by then married to Mildred. As I was late getting called up it was late when I was demobbed and it was difficult to obtain work. My father and I started buying old Oak trees and started making fencing posts. This went quite well and when we were told that there was a lot of timber to be cleared at Eglwyseg we took the job. We drove from Llansannan everyday in 1950, sometimes via the hill from the top of the Horseshoe Pass to Pentredwr. We both cleared the rubbish firewood timber below the rocks from Eglwyseg to Worlds End, mainly as firewood. We also cleared the hill to the left of the road from Eglwyseg to Worlds End. We were told to cut down all the trees but we left four Oak trees on the top. You can see them as you go up the Horseshoe as my father used to say “Ar y bryn ‘roedd pren”, the well known song “Y Pren ar Y Bryn”. I think they are still there. We then met Mr and Mrs Bond, lovely kind people whose son Donald was once Mayor of Llangollen. Dad and I used to call in the Britannia for a bottle of Mackie before returning to Llansannan. Then one Friday Mrs Williams asked me to play the pinao and what a sing song we had there. I was getting £3 and free drinks. This started something for the next two or three years. Every Welsh speaking policeman would get Friday night off of the Friday of the Eisteddfod. What a night! The place was chockerblocked and the singing was good. Sometimes one or two PCs would insist of a fight - outside, friendly ones of course!

Soon after I obtained a job as a “Bull in a Bowler Hat” at the AI centre in Ruthin and the Friday night singsong went on until Mr and Mrs Williams finished. In 1960 I was told to emigrate to England but returned in 1967 to Ruthin. Then, foot and mouth became a problem and I was appointed pest controller for Denbigh and Flint area. In October I was told that a room had been booked for me at the Grapes in Llangollen and it was from there that we operated. I learned a lot from farmers in those days on how rats and foxes and badgers were eating the tongues of unburied, unburned animals, but no one listened. By a sheer bit of luck I saw the ex-mayor, Don on telly and we rang him up and we had a nice chat. And when I come to North Wales as an old man I still sing “Llangollen y Garaf Di”.